Questions Answered in New 'X-men: Days of Future Past' Clip; Hugh Jackman Says 'Wolverine 3' Is His Last

There are a couple of big questions surrounding this month's X-men: Days of Future Past. One was how James McAvoy's Charles Xavier has been seen walking around when Michael Fassbender's Magneto accidentally paralyzed him in X-men: First Class. The other is how exactly they managed to be friends after something like that occurred. The latest clip from the film answers both of those questions, and suffice it to say there's quite a bit of unfinished business between the two. Kind of feel sorry for Wolverine having to get in-between them.

Speaking of Wolverine, Hugh Jackman is again talking about his desire to get away from the clawed mutant. After every movie he's basically washed his hands of the character, only to return in time for a new film. He did it after The Wolverine, which is technically the second solo film, and now he's doing it again before the third film which James Mangold is coming back to direct. When asked by SFX where the next film might go, Jackman basically said he's not officially on board, and even if he does agree (he will) it's likely to be the last time he sports the muttonchop haircut...

 Jackman:  “I haven’t signed on signed on. I’m genuinely at that point where unless it’s better than the last one I’m not going to do it.”

"If I did another one I’m 99.9% sure it would be the last, so that will inform what it is for me.”

That could prove problematic to future X-men movies if Jackman doesn't renew his contract. Bryan Singer has already stated that X-men: Apocalypse will revert back to the younger X-men: First Class squad, but there's clearly going to be an attempt by 20th Century Fox expand the franchise. Patrick Stewart has already hinted at his older version of Xavier returning, and if the plan is to bring back the original team then fans will expect Wolverine to be a part of it.


X-Men Days of Future Past - You Abandoned Us All by Stuff We Like

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'The Wolverine' Sequel Lands a Writer in David James Kelly

There has been a lot of movement this week on a sequel to James Mangold's The Wolverine. The director revealed he'd begin filming once Bryan Singer wraps up X-men: Apocalypse, and that was followed by Fox announcing a release date of March 3rd 2017. Now it also has a new writer in David James Kelly.

Fox knows Kelly from their aborted attempts to reboot the Daredevil franchise before the rights reverted back to Marvel. He won't have to worry about that happening with The Wolverine 2, which Deadline seems confident Hugh Jackman will return for. The studio has also set Kelly to adapt Matt Kindt's comic book, Mind Management.

The Wolverine's storyline was a completely stand-alone effort, only bridging to X-men: Days of Future Past through a post credits sequence. We'll see if that's the direction they go again or if we'll see a closer relationship with the other X-titles. 

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Fox Dates Secret Marvel Film, 'Fantastic Four 2', 'The Wolverine 2', 'Taken 3, and Mystery Ridley Scott Film

Bryan Singer isn't the only one looking way into the future of his X-men franchise, 20th Century Fox has their plans laid out all the way through 2018. The studio has just set in stone a number of release dates for their superhero line-up, Taken 3, plus a couple of projects shrouded in mystery.

Let's start off on the Marvel side, with Fox slating James Mangold's sequel to The Wolverine for March 3rd 2017. Mangold has recently stated filming will begin once Singer wraps up on X-men: Apocalypse, but as it stands right now Hugh Jackman is not confirmed to come back. He likely will, it just hasn't happened yet.

While there were rumors of a creative shake-up on Josh Trank's Fantastic Four, that's in the past and Fox is confident enough to set the sequel for July 14th 2017. It's too early to know if Trank will return although it doesn't seem likely considering he didn't bother coming back for Chronicle 2.

Strangely enough, Fox has also set a date of July 18th 2018 for a mystery Marvel project. The natural assumption is this will be an off-shoot of Fantastic Four or X-men, with Jeff Wadlow's developing X-force film likely to be in that slot. It's always possible someone has finally decided to green light Deadpool, but we'll just have to wait and see on that.

Also getting release dates are Taken 3, the Liam Neeson-actioner being set for January 9th 2015. Paul McGuigan's Frankenstein, which stars Daniel Radcliffe, has been pushed back nine months to October 2nd 2015.

There's also a secret Ridley Scott project that Fox has slated for March 4th 2016. Could this be his oft-rumored Prometheus sequel? Scott has more projects on his calendar than most directors have actually completed, so it could be anything.

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Bryan Singer Talks 'X-men: Apocalypse'; James Mangold Updates on 'The Wolverine 2'

In just a few short months Bryan Singer will give us X-men: Days of Future Past, a film which will be key to the rebirth of the X-men franchise. We know Singer is already looking ahead to 2016 and X-men: Apocalypse, which we still no precious little about other than the titular villain. At the same time, James Mangold is prepping a sequel to The Wolverine and that figures into the mix somewhere. With press beginning on X-men: Days of Future Past, Singer has revealed a few small details about 'Apocalypse', while Mangold has cleared up when his sequel will start rolling.

In an interview with Total Film, Singer says screenwriters Michael Dougherty, Simon Kinberg, and Dan Harris are "breaking the story" now, which will be set in a different time period than X-men: First Class and 'Future Past'....

Singer: “We’re going to deal with the notion of ancient mutants – the fact they were born and existed thousands of years ago. But it’ll be a contemporary movie – well, it’ll take place in the ’80s… The ’80s is a period now – it’s hard for me to believe that!”

He also says the film will be much bigger in scope and the level of super-powered destruction....

Singer:  “Apocalypse will have more of the mass destruction that X-Men films, to date, have not relied upon. There’s definitely now a character and a story that allow room for that kind of spectacle… I don’t want to get too specific, but we’ll introduce familiar characters in a younger time. That’ll be fun to show the audience. I call these movies in-between-quels. It’s a mind-fuck sometimes in terms of where things fall in the timeline!” 

"Younger characters in a younger time"? Could he be talking about reintroducing younger versions of Cyclops and Jean Grey? Sounds like he's setting up for exactly that....

Singer:  “Yeah, there actually are [more stories I want to tell]. It all stems back to when I did [the first] X-Men. You always want to know where a character’s going to go, what their future’s going be like. You can always sequelise. But on that film I also had actors asking ‘Who am I? Where did my character come from?’ So as a director you always need a backstory to give your actors. It may not be the right backstory, but it’s one you can give the actor to help them understand their character. These prequels are really exciting for me because they give me a chance to explore ideas I came up with more than a decade ago.” 

The central figure in 'Future Past', and nearly all of the X-men movies, is Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. We know that Mangold is coming back to write and direct Logan's next adventure, although Jackman has been wobbly about returning. He's always non-committal until a script is done. Anyway, a Twitter user asked Mangold when The Wolverine sequel would begin filming, and the director responded with...

@R__E__D_R__U__M @20centuryfox @ShuDonner We are figuring it all out. At the moment, I'm shooting The next #Wolverine after #XmenApocalypse.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) March 15, 2014

That means we won't see The Wolverine 2 until 2017 at the earliest, and by then Jackman will be 48 years old. He's still quite the physical speciman and could probably play Logan until he's 60, it's just a matter of desire.....and how much money 20th Century Fox offers.

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Hugh Jackman Hints at 'The Wolverine' Sequel Plans

Whenever The Wolverine sequel makes its way into theaters, it will arrive in a very different landscape than the two prior films did. With X-men: Days of Future Past bringing the clawed mutant together with the cast of X-men: First Class and Bryan Singer's earlier films, there's a whole new world being crafted that Wolverine will fit into. One thing that will remain the same is Hugh Jackman, who recently agreed to play Wolverine at least one more time in the follow-up, and he seems pretty excited about the ideas he and returning director James Mangold are coming up with.

While talking with EW, Jackman hinted at those ideas without really giving anything away...

Jackman: “I was on the phone with Jim Mangold last night. There are some really cool ideas that I’m dying to tell you, but that would be giving away a secret that is not even [fully] formed yet.”

He also revealed that 20th Century Fox will need to sign him to another contract as he's been working on a per movie basis ever since X-2, which was a decade ago. Perhaps that's also why he has the flexibility to wait until a good idea comes around before committing to anything, because he can walk away at any time....

Jackman: “I don’t want to dive into another one until we have a compelling reason to do another one. I love the character, he’s kind of like a best friend to me, and I don’t ever want to take [him] or the fans for granted. … I think we’ve got a great opportunity to make something really cool, but it has to be great. That’s what we’re all working toward.”

The Wolverine hits Blu-Ray on December 13th, and X-men: Days of Future Past arrives in theaters May 23rd 2014.

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Hugh Jackman and James Mangold Returning for 'The Wolverine' Sequel

Even before The Wolverine clawed its way to over $400M this summer, Hugh Jackman was openly discussing the possibility this would be his time as the Canadian mutant. In regards to returning, he said “I wasn’t even sure after the first film if I would do another. I won’t say never, because I’m still loving it. But there would have to be a pretty compelling reason.” Perhaps that compelling reasons is a hefty sum offered up by 20th Century Fox, or maybe it has to do with the revitalized X-men universe the studio is building. Whatever the reasons are, Jackman is coming back for more, and he won't be alone.

Deadline reports Jackman and director James Mangold are in talks to return for a sequel to The Wolverine. Jackman enlisting for another film isn't too much of a shock, but Mangold's participation is a little unexpected. The Wolverine had begun as a Darren Aronofsky project which Mangold took over after he departed. As for the script, it looks like Mangold will take a first shot but we can expect to see others give it a go at some point.

This is obviously still very early on but one has to start thinking about where this film will fit into the larger picture being developed. Wolverine is the central figure in next year's X-men: Days of Future Past, and The Wolverine served as a bridge towards getting there. Will The Wolverine sequel take us into Jeff Wadlow's X-force? Or possibly X-men 4? Or something entirely different? And where will this one be set? Certainly Japan is out of the question, right? Maybe they'll drop Wolvie off in the wilds of the Savage Land? Maybe the next one will acknowledge that X-men Origins: Wolverine still exists? Eh, probably not.  Lots of questions to be answered. Stay tuned.

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